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May 11, 2010

Russian Patriarch avoids 'Stalin' as dictator debate simmers

Stalin is long dead, but the orders issued by the "great and powerful" men in history are words that reverberate for generations, haunting the imagination, requiring expiation, explanation, or rebuke many years, sometimes centuries afterwards. The Mark of Stalin...

By Sophia Kishkovsky

Moscow, 11 May (ENI)--Church debate in Russia continues to simmer over the role of dictator Josef Stalin, but Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church has said in a Moscow sermon that the Second World War was redemptive for his country, while making no mention of the former Soviet ruler's name in his address.

"The church does not look at the war as historians or politicians do," said Kirill on 9 May at the Church of Christ the Saviour. "The church has a particular stance, a particular spiritual point of view." The Patriarch said he believed the war had redeemed Russia from its sins.

"We know what took place among our people after the bloody events of the beginning of the 20th century," said Kirill. "How many lies, how much evil and human suffering there was. But God washed away these lies and this evil with our blood, with the blood of our fathers, as has happened more than once in human history."

"And that is why we must come to a special understanding of the redemptive meaning of the Great Patriotic War," Kirill added.

The patriarch did not mention by name Stalin, who led the Soviet Union
during the Second World War, but the church leader did take issue with
historians who equate Nazi Germany with Stalin-era Russia.

"When some homegrown historians tell us that the evil here was no less
than there, they are not seeing beyond their own noses, and fail to see
the divine horizon beyond their extremely primitive and sinful
analysis," said Kirill. "The Great Patriotic War [as Russians call the
Second World War] revealed to us God's truth about ourselves. It
punished us for our sins but revealed to us the great glory and
strength of our people."

At the Moscow church service, Kirill led special prayers commemorating
Russia's victory in the war. They were composed by him, and based on a
prayer commemorating Russia's victory over Napoleon in 1812. The
prayers will now be read each year in Russian Orthodox churches on 9
May.

The Moscow Patriarchate has been embroiled in a row over a popular
writer's claims that the strong stance taken by the Russian Orthodox
Church and especially Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk against Stalin
is dividing Russian society.

On 6 May, a long letter was posted on the Web site of the
Patriarchate's external relations department, which Hilarion heads. The
letter, by Hieromonk Filipp Ryabykh, deputy chairperson of the
department, was in response to a letter sent to Hilarion in December
2009 by Aleksandr Prokhanov, an author of novels that glorify Stalin
and the editor of Zavtra, a Stalinist newspaper. Prokhanov is also a
popular television and radio personality.

In his letter, Prokhanov asked Hilarion why he and other church
officials have attacked Stalin's role in Russian history and the Second
World War. The same question also appeared in the first 2010 edition of
Zavtra.

Prokhanov wrote that Hilarion's statement in 2009 that Stalin was a
"spiritual monster", and similar anti-Stalinist statements by other
church officials and clergymen were fraught with danger.

"Is sensitivity to the opinion of the people deserting these leaders of
the church?" Prokhanov wrote. "Are they not placing themselves against
the people at the moment when the people are appealing to the church,
and seeking from it protection against the monstrous satanic elements
that have burst into Russian life?"

According to Prokhanov, church officials who criticise Stalin fail to
credit him for his role in reviving the Russian empire. He also points
out that the Russian Orthodox Church prayed for Stalin, and asserts,
"Stalin went along the path of Emperor Constantine, who first
persecuted and tormented Christians but then became a saint and creator
of a Christian empire."

Ryabykh's reponse, on behalf of Hilarion, was prefaced with an
explanation timed to coincide with the celebration of the 65th
anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, celebrated
on 9 May. The anniversary has been accompanied by impassioned debates
about Stalin.

Ryabykh wrote that the victory did not belong to Stalin, and reiterated
Hilarion's condemnation of the dictator. "An inhuman system was created
under Stalin, and nothing can justify it: neither industrialisation,
nor the atomic bomb, nor the preservation of state borders, nor even
victory in the Great Patriotic War, for all of this was attained not by
Stalin but by our multinational people. The regime created by Stalin
was based on terror, violence and repression, by lies and
denunciations."

Stalin, Ryabykh continued, created a "time bomb" by dividing the
country's territory along ethnic lines, and this led to, "extremism,
nationalism and xenophobia" and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ryabykh added that praying for the authorities and meeting with them
did not mean approving of their policies. [Copyright Ecumenical news
International, reprinted by permission]